Marin Readers' Forum for April 4

Per-capita incomes in Marin County are highest in California and 4th highest in the U.S.

However, nearly 60 percent of people who work in Marin commute in from outside the county, and more than half of these commuters earn less than $40,000 per year.

Two-thirds of Marin workers earn less than the $56,000 per year needed to afford a one-bedroom apartment cost. Regional studies show that Marin County workers drive farther than any other work force in the Bay Area.

At The Redwoods senior housing, where I live, of our 145 employees, only 10 live in Mill Valley and 65 come from out of the county.

There is fairly wide agreement that we do need more affordable housing. However, there always seems to be objections to where it should be and how dense.

Architectural design is key to acceptable projects, and 30 units are generally known to be required in building affordable housing. San Clemente Place in Corte Madera had objections before being built, but the 79 households are deemed attractive and now very helpful in the community.

In the area of St. Vincent's and Silveira and Marinwood, land is available and centrally located in the county for local workers and some additional senior housing.

The important issue is the architectural design.

We need the housing and decrease in travel causing green-house gas, as well as fairness in costs and family time for our lower income workers.

Let each of our 11 cities and our county strive with its housing elements in our general plans to do our share.

Elizabeth Moody, Mill Valley

Blurring oyster facts

Ms. Ives' letter (Readers' Forum, April 1) is riddled with inaccuracies that should be filtered out.

First, while it is true that the Lunny family operates a ranch within Point Reyes National Seashore, any attempt to blur together the beef ranch and the oyster farm is misinformed and misleading.

Second, dragging the Koch brothers into the discussion does a gross disservice to the fine work done by the lead attorneys on the case. They are donating better than 80 percent of the legal work, there is nothing political in any of their efforts, and they should be properly recognized for their service. Bringing up the Koch brothers is hyper-inflated fear mongering, and insulting to both sides in this argument.

Drakes Esteros' mention in Sen. David Vitter's energy bill does indeed ride along with some sensitive topics. The senator's state of Louisiana is an oyster-producing state and his interest in the oyster farm is not surprising. Searching for more meaning is overreaching and silly.

Even without the oyster farm, incidentally, Drakes Estero cannot become wilderness because we, the citizens of California, have reserved rights that cannot be illegally seized by the federal government or given away by our state government.

The issues surrounding the oyster farm are indeed complex and require careful research before arriving at an opinion that can be respected.

Even then, I do not believe that we will all arrive at the same conclusion.

But I would ask the IJ readers to be skeptical when they read letters such as Ms. Ives' because the amount of misinformation promulgated by the extremist environmental organizations and our very own Park Service make it difficult to get at the truth, and the truth is what should guide our thinking.